(Adams Presidential Address Continued from Page 4)

More seriously, community development practice and scholarship have gone through a number of twists and turns over the last few decades as we have come to better understand the field within various conceptual frameworks as well as their practical applications.  Today, there is a growing interest in promoting regional development, i.e., looking beyond any one development project, program, or community to integrate development with neighboring communities, towns, and cities in a geographic area.  In the process, it will be important to remember that communities don't exist as a tabla rosa, but have a history, assets, and their own vision of the future as to what determines their quality of life.  How will we undertake any community or regional development given current expectations that such development is a competitive necessity in a global economy while at the same time insure that local and regional knowledge, environment, culture, and quality of life are included as part and parcel along with the economic part of the development process?I hope presentations next year will include information about how a project, program, or model of development at the local, regional or national level, not only affects a prescribed constituency, but also how those activities, events, or models are linked to a bigger picture in terms of how they provide a component to the whole within a regional development framework.  And if they are not linked, how this might affect the sustainability of that activity or the validity of the development model?  Whether they are or are not linked, what are we learning about the process and results of regional development?  What will CDS bring to an understanding of this latest incarnation of community development?

Past president, John Bloch, hands the gavel to new president, Randy Adams

The following description of a professor’s field trip for students from three professions, biology, landscape architecture, and engineering exemplifies for me the reason behind the need and the value for the types of dialogue the CDS promotes through its conferences and publications.  This is a lesson for academics as well as practitioners in any field.  It highlights how students, as well as professionals, have a tendency to stay within the comfort zone of predetermined frameworks that shape questions and answers.

“The biologists saw the stream channel primarily in terms of habitat and organic form. They recognized the curvilinear form of the stream course, the cutting of banks as it changed direction, the deposition of eroded materials, exposed shale, wooded slopes, and floodplain. The behavior of the stream itself, however, was generally ignored. The engineers saw the stream as an almost straight man-made channel, flowing smoothly down its course, uninterrupted by obstructions. Its surrounding environs were noted on their sketches as 'active erosion, slump, silt.' All were drawn with an engineering certainty and precision that defined problem areas requiring correction. Straighten out the channel, folks, and all will be well- a reflection of attitudes that natural forces are to be controlled or overcome. The landscape students, with no training in engineering or biology, created fine artistic renderings (often in color) that showed slopes, floodplain, and a thin, wavy stream line, but which revealed almost nothing of the watercourseís behavior or its influence on its surroundings”3

Would CDS members recommend simply straightening out the stream?  I hope not.  One of the best characteristics that I have found among folk working in community development is their ability to integrate thinking across sectors and bring professional specialties together into a comprehensive whole.  And that’s also the niche and strength I see in CDS, the interrelationships we build between practitioners and scholars across disciplines focusing on the community development process no matter the particular sector specialty within which we may work.  We need to encourage this cross-fertilization.

In my daughter’s last year finishing up her degree program in urban studies at the University of Pittsburg she was asked as part of her practicum to sit in on a public meeting which was to present ideas for what to do with a ten acre parcel of land donated to the university.  Many developers came.  There were also other parties from other areas proposing a whole variety of ideas from a mall to high rises to parking garages.  She called me after the meeting in frustration and said, “Dad, no one asked the people or the students who actually live around the area what they thought should be done.  And then as only a young college student can, worked herself up with as much indignation as she could and said, “…that’s just wrong!”   I just listened.  Then after a long pause she said, “I finally understand what you do!”  We add people to the equation, all inclusive of the population incorporated within the community.  And participation does not mean letting people respond to your questionnaire, but assisting people in determining what questions need to be asked!  By the way, the University must have been listening because I understand they turned the area into a public park!

(continued)